Capacity-Building / CUNY Plans a New Community College

Monday’s Times includes a report on a plan for a new CUNY community college in Manhattan enrolling 5,000 students, while today’s Times reports that the stimulus package proposal includes $6 million for higher education infrastructure projects. The new community college is probably not “shovel ready” yet, but who knows?

Following through on the recommendations of the Gates-funded study that I wrote about here on Monday, the majors at the college will be “limited to about a dozen fields with robust job opportunities” and all prospective students will be required to interview to “know what will be expected of them.” In addition to these plans, CUNY should co-locate non-degree certificate programs at the college, as the Gates-funded study suggested that certificate programs are often a better route out of poverty and low-income jobs than associate degrees.